WOW! I'm really sorry about the lengthy time between parts. The past few weekends, which is when I usually have the most free time, have been really hectic. Anyway, even though the series finale has already aired, I'm sticking with what I've been planning to do all along. Angel came to Sunnydale with the Amulet but that was all...definitely no smoochies.
Also, another reason for delay was that I had to wait to see the season finale of Angel to see what was going on over there before starting this part...I'm a week and a day behind the usual WB schedule because I don't have the WB, so I had to wait for the finale.
Anyway, I hope you all are still with me and hope you enjoy the new part! Thank you for all the reviews and support so far :)
Never Gave Up, part 3/?
By: Rachel
See Part One for all the author notes and disclaimer.
~*~*~*~
Fred walked to the other side of the office with a half-filled box of books in between her hands. She approached the front desk and set the box down before picking up the remaining books and papers from the desk and placing them inside the box.
"Hey. There you are," Wes spoke, sticking his head through the doorway and looking into the office. "Are you almost finished packing?"
Fred nodded and gave him a shaky smile. "Almost done." She placed a few more books in the box before placing the lid on top. Picking up the box again, she started heading out of the room along side Wesley, saying, "Gosh, I can't believe that we're moving out of this place."
"Well, I, for one, think it's great," Gunn said as he passed by Fred. "I think it's about time we all get a new start an' all, right?"
"Quite right," Wesley agreed.
"Oh, c'mon...you're just happy about getting a chance to read everything down there in that basement, aren't you?" Gunn asked, teasing his friend.
Wesley cracked a smile, unable to control his excitement about their new work place. "I admit, I'm looking forward to further exploring everything inside that building." After all, he spent all of his free time researching the information and many prophecies that he found in the back room at the law firm.
Almost a week had passed since Angel accepted Wolfram and Hart's offer. The crew, which now consisted of Fred, Wesley, Gunn, Angel, and occasionally Lorne, had spent the week packing up everything and moving out of the Hyperion Hotel. With their newly established bank accounts that Wolfram and Hart provided for each person, everyone had bought new and much more expensive apartments, including Angel who now had a direct route to Wolfram and Hart without risking possibly of running into any sunlight.
Even better was that Wesley was quickly becoming a member of the crew again. His friendship that he had once had with Gunn was slowly forming all over as well. The only thing no one spoke about was the never-ending awkward love triangle between Gunn, Fred, and Wes, which was fine for Wesley since he was just happy to have his friends back with him once more.
"So, do you think Angel made the right decision, then?" Fred asked the two men standing in front of her. "After all...he seemed so suspicious of them, I'm just-"
"I'm *still* suspicious of them," Angel interrupted, walking down the stairs with a couple duffle bags across his shoulder. "I don't trust them -- I probably never will, but I did what I had to. I did what needed to be done."
"Well, all I can say is, if they help get Cordy out of that coma...then I think it was a good move," Gunn explained.
"Yeah..." Angel agreed, avoiding eye contact with the rest of the people in the room.
It still hadn't fully sunk in yet that he was the only one who knew about his son, Connor. The only son he had ever, and might ever, have was nothing more than a figment of his imagination...just something else that he would have to bear on his shoulders alone.
But Angel couldn't think about that now.
He had to worry about what Wolfram and Hart were up to now. Saying that he was suspicious of the law firm was an understatement. Angel didn't trust them a bit.
After all, they were bent on destroying him ever since the very first case he had taken in LA and *now* they were offering him the entire business?
They had to be up to something.
But what that something was, Angel didn't know. All he knew was that he was determined to find out. He accepted the offer, planning to snoop around every corner and every nook and cranny of every room inside the building until he discovered something that would explain the reason why.
"Where's Lorne?" Angel asked, walking down the last few remaining stairs and into the main room.
"Oh, he's already at W and H," Gunn explained. "Been over there for a few hours by now."
"Yeah, he's getting a look around at a place he's got in mind to turn into a new karaoke bar," Fred continued. "You should have seen him...hasn't stopped talking about it all day."
"And everything else is already over there?" Angel asked, making sure that they weren't leaving anything behind.
"We've got it covered, man," Gunn assured him. "Anyway, it's not like anyone is going to be taking any of these books anytime soon. Who would want to move into this ol' place?"
"Shall we?" Wesley asked, picking up a crate and another bag filled with various weapons.
The other three grabbed what they could and started heading towards the double doors, taking one last look around the building they had called home for the last almost three years.
Before anyone made it to the steps, however, the doors flew open and a pale figure dressed entirely in black, stumbled into the room. He took a few deep breaths, groaning as he pressed a hand to his side, before raising his blue eyes to look around the room.
What the hell? Angel asked himself, his mouth falling open for a second. "Spike?"
"Hello, there, Peaches," the bleached-blonde haired man greeted with a smirk at his Sire.
Spike wobbled back a forth for a second, before slumping onto the ground with another groan escaping his mouth before falling into unconsciousness.
"Oh-my-gosh!" Fred cried, dropping the box she was holding and running up to the fallen man. She ran her hand down his side and pulled it away, gasping when she felt blood on her fingertips. "Angel!"
Gunn let the bags slide off his arm and onto the floor and hurried to Fred's side. "Angel, man, you should call the hospital," he announced when he looked at Spike's condition.
Wesley took a step towards Angel, lowering his voice as he spoke. "Angel? Isn't that...?"
A low, soft growl slipped past Angel's lips as he stared at his grand-childe laying on the floor. "Spike," he muttered, frowning.
"But -- But it's four in the afternoon," Wesley stated. "He just...walked inside?"
"Angel!" Gunn repeated. "You better step on that phone call, dude. The guy's heart beat is really faint, I think we're losing him."
Both Angel and Wesley's mouths dropped before exclaiming, "heart beat?!"
Angel was the first to regain his thoughts and crossed the room to the front desk. He picked up the phone, hoping that the line hadn't already been disconnected. Angel punched in 9-1-1 and waited for someone to pick up on the other line.
"Hello? Yes...we need an ambulance...the Hyperion Hotel, yes...4121 Wilshire Blvd. Sure -- that'd be great. Thanks." He turned to Gunn and Fred and nodded. "OK, they'll be here in about five to ten minutes."
"What do we do until then?"
"Just keep him comfortable, I guess," Angel answered.
Gunn removed his jean jacket and balled it up, using it as a pillow to prop up Spike's head. "Do you know this guy?" He asked Angel.
"Yeah," Angel began. "He's my...my childe."
Gunn's eyes widened and he shook his head. "You've got kids? Man, and here I was thinking that vampires couldn't have any--"
"He means childe as in when a vampire creates another vampire. The creator is the sire and the vampire created is its childe," Wesley explained. "Angel...or was it Drusilla?" He asked, looking over at the brown-haired vampire for a second before continuing. "Sired him back in the 1880s, if memory serves."
Fred frowned and placed her fingers at Spike's neck, feeling a faint, but steady pulse beneath her fingertips. "But Angel...this man is alive."
Wesley looked over at Angel for confirmation as he spoke. "Something must have happened in Sunnydale after you left. Something vitally important."
"Yeah..." Angel said once again. He had been hoping that Buffy would call him after the final battle was over. She must have lived through it, he swore to himself. I'd know if she hadn't. However, Spike showing up here...beaten and bloodied up, and...alive?
Yes, something *major* must have definitely happened after he left Sunnydale.
He turned back to the phone and dialed a new number. "Yeah, it's Angel...get me Lilah."
Fred, Gunn, and Wesley all turned to Angel when they heard him say the name of the boss of Wolfram and Hart.
"Lilah? It's Angel."
"Angel...well, what a pleasant surprise," her sultry voice greeted. "We're all expecting you and your friends over here any time now, and--"
"Save it, Lilah," Angel cut her off. "Look, I need you to meet us at the hospital. Something has come up."
"Sure thing," she agreed. "You're the boss."
Angel hung up as he once again wondered what Wolfram and Hart were really up to.
Outside, the shrill siren of an ambulance rang clear. The group heard doors open and close and voices grow louder as the EMTs approached the front door.
"Wes, I need you to drive me over to the hospital," Angel requested, grabbing his jacket and heading towards the basement to get out of the hotel without being exposed to the daylight. "You guys...stay with him."
~~~
After arriving at the hospital, Spike had been rushed inside and treated immediately. The doctor said that he had suffered a severe concussion, massive intensive bleeding in his stomach and chest, three broken ribs, a fractured arm, and other small bumps and bruises here and there on his body. The most dangerous thing was his internal bleeding, which the doctors, at that point in time, could only hope they were able to stop in time.
Ten minutes later, the entire crew had gathered at the hospital in the emergency ward. Angel stood outside in the waiting room, anxiously pacing back and forth.
"So, what's the deal with this Billy Idol wanna-be?" Gunn asked, looking up at the pacing vampire.
"His name is Spike," Angel began. "Drusilla, a woman I sired, made him, and, along with Darla, the four of us ran throughout Europe maiming and killing everyone in our path until I was cursed with my soul."
Angel continued to explain Spike's past as easily and best he could so Gunn and Fred would understand everything.
"Man...your entire family is just completely wack," Gunn muttered after hearing the entire story.
Before anyone could say anything else, a nurse walked into the room, saying, "Are you all here for Spike Williams?"
"Yes," all four replied.
"Is he awake?" Angel asked. Maybe he can explain what happened. Why he's suddenly human.
"Not really. He's drifting in and out of consciousness," she explained. "The doctors said he was muttering something about...Buffy? Is that one of your four?"
Everyone shook their heads. "No, it's a friend of ours, but she isn't here right now," Angel said. "Is that all?"
"No. There were some scattered sentences and fragments like...really love me..something like never giving up until he finds Buffy, something about being human, and something else about a poofer?" She asked, her tone confused since none of the muttered words made sense to her.
Angel smirked and shook his head. Typical Spike, he thought. "Are we allowed to go back there and see him?"
"Of course. But I can only allow two visitors at a time at the most," she told him.
"I'm going to go back there and check on him," Angel said.
"All right. Anyone else?" the nurse asked.
"I'd like to go," a woman's voice announced as she stepped into the room.
"Lilah," Angel greeted. "Nice of you to stop by."
"Sorry, Angel. I was detained. Everyone who isn't already assigned to a job has been spending the entire day looking into what happened down in Sunnydale," she explained. "For you."
As the nurse led the two down the hallway, Angel asked Lilah, "Anything?" about possible news from Sunnydale.
"Nothing," she replied. "Seems like everything was swallowed up in that town. Everyone had deserted their homes weeks ago aside from your little Slayer and her army...there wasn't anything left but rubble and decay when we sent people down there to check it out for you."
"Great," Angel sarcastically muttered.
"The news reporters are calling it a freak earthquake," Lilah continued, smirking at the pathetic excuse. "They said it happened so quickly that the seismograph just didn't have the time to pick up on it. Either that or the seismographs were malfunctioning."
"Sounds like something they'd come up with as an excuse for an apocalyptic battle," Angel sarcastically replied.
"So what was it that you wanted me to see?" she asked.
"I was wondering if you knew what happened here," Angel began as they neared Spike's room.
Lilah looked the blonde man over, unsure of what Angel wanted her to say. "Your bet is as good as mine. Who is he?"
"My grande-childe, of sorts..." Angel responded. "William the Bloody, also known as Spike. The vampire that rampaged through Europe along side Drusilla back during my Angelus days."
Lilah smirked and shook her head. "Doesn't look like a vampire anymore, does he?" She walked around the bed Spike lay in as she spoke, looking at him from every angle.
"You're telling me," Angel agreed. He began moving to the doorway to exit the room, Lilah following beside him. "So I need you to get another group of people to find out everything they can about a vampire turning human again. Research this, Lilah. Maybe the amulet you gave me had some mystical properties in it that we didn't know about. Maybe he said or did something wrong, or--"
"Or maybe it was the prophecy," Wesley interrupted from the doorway. He stood leaning against the side paneling, and nodded his head in a greeting towards the woman inside. "Lilah," he greeted.
"The prophecy?" Angel and Lilah asked together.
"You're going to have to get a little bit more specific than that," Lilah added.
"Don't you remember, Angel? The Prophecies of Aberjian," Wesley explained. "We stole it from their...well, our law firm years ago when you went in to get those files for Lindsey."
That thought obviously hadn't even crossed Angel's mind. "Oh, that prophecy. But I thought that you said it would be for--"
"For you...yes, that is what I thought at the time." One of Wesley's eyebrows raised as he continued to speak. "But when I translated it, you were the only vampire with a soul around at that time. Things can change over time, even ensouled vampires, apparently."
Lilah stood looking at the two men in front of her. "I'm sorry...the Prophecies of Aberjian? I don't think I'm familiar with that." She added sarcastically, "After all, it was stolen from Wolfram and Hart."
Wesley motioned them out into the empty hallway so they could be closer together to talk. "The Prophecies of Aberjian talked about a vampire with a soul, who, after fulfilling his destiny, would shanshu."
"Shanshu?"
"Become human," Angel explained, crossing his arms across his chest and frowning. For years he had always thought that prophecy was his. It had always been in the back of his mind, always been a possibility. But now it seemed that this possibility was becoming less possible the more Wesley explained it.
"The prophecy said there would be apocalyptic battles," Wesley began.
"I think The First pretty much counts as an apocalyptic battle," Lilah commented.
"...several other enemies that would show up," he continued.
"Your little Witch friend gone evil, Glory, the hell-god bent on destroying the world.," Lilah listed. "What do you know? Sounds like we've got a winner here."
Angel sighed, running his hand through his hair.
Was it really not meant for him then?
This prophecy was meant for, of all vampires...Spike?!
~~~
OK...there's part 3! Part 4 is already 1/2 written. Sorry there wasn't too much plot...just a filler part to get me to the next couple of parts. I really hope you enjoyed -- please review!